Kentucky, to Portsmouth, Ohio. Charter Approved. May 7, 1886.

Madison and South-eastern Railway Company. Incorporators, J. W. McGinnis, Wm. M. Cravens, John Bayer, W. T. Crabb, W. H. McElvain, John J. Berry, of Henry county; John W. Lee, of Trimble county; John H. Crain, of Anderson county; James R. Marrs, of Boyle county; capital stock $7,000,000. Route of road, from Madison, Indiana, through Trimble, Carroll, Shelby, Anderson, Mercer, and Boyle counties, or from Madison, Indiana, to a point on the line between Kentucky and Tennessee or Virginia, with power to connect. with any branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad. Charter to be null and void if work on road is not begun within two years from date of approval. Approved May 13, 1886.

Madisonville, Providence and Clayville Railway Company. Commissioners to receive subscriptions to capital stock, J. W. Hammock, J. W. Moore, F. M. Green, Joel Blackwell, and Thomas Blackwell; capital stock $75,000. Route of road, from terminus of Providence and Madisonville Branch of the Louisville and Nashville, to the town of Clayville; thence to the town of Morganfield, or any point on the Ohio river in Union county. Approved May 13, 1886.

Sacramento and Central City Railway Company. Incorporators, John R. Vickers, James T. Morehead, James Woodburn, T. C. DuPont, Joseph H. Short, John K. Sullivan, and Joseph Brown. Route of road, from Sacramento, in McLean county, to Central City or South Carrollton, in Muhlenberg county. Charter approved April 22, 1886.

Louisville, St. Louis and Texas Railroad.

On page twenty-eight of this report we refer to the Louisville, St. Louis and Texas Railroad as a "projected road." Since that part of the report was written we have been informed by Col. J. D. Powers, of Owensboro, one of the chief projectors and a leading spirit of the enterprise, that fifty miles of that road-from West Point to Cloverport-has been put under contract and a large force put to work on its construction. Local aid and other means to an amount sufficient

to insure the completion of the road to Owensboro against the beginning of winter, and to Henderson a few months later, has been secured, and the work along the entire line will be vigorously pressed forward. This road will pass through the counties of Jefferson, Hardin, Meade, Breckenridge, Hancock, Daviess and Henderson, penetrating the south eastern border of the great Illinois coal field, at a distance of only seventyfive miles from Louisville, and passing within eight miles of the world-renowned Breckenridge Cannel Coal Mines, with a daily output of four hundred tons of that unequaled coal, which is exported directly to England. A local road from these mines will be tapped at Cloverport. An immense field of superior oolite stone is penetrated in Meade county, and the celebrated brown sandstone quarries of Hancock, the stone from which obtained the highest medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, are on the immediate route of the road.

In Meade county, within a short distance of the road, are the celebrated salt wells, which furnish at once the brine from which to make the finest article of salt known to commerce, and an abundant supply of natural gas to boil down the water and manufacture the salt.

But abundant and valuable as are the mineral resources of this region, its agricultural productions are of equal if not greater importance. Wheat, corn, and live stock are produced in enormous quantities, and of tobacco nearly 40,000 hogsheads are annually raised and shipped to market.

The construction of this new avenue of traffic and travel will be of incalculable benefit to the people along its route. It will afford them a means of transportation much more rapid and trustworthy than the river, and will secure them rates practically regulated by water competition.

The connections at Louisville and at Henderson are all that could be desired by any people.

Besides these local advantages, the aggregate wealth of the State will be largely increased, and our metropolis will reap a rich harvest of trade which has, to a great extent, been heretofore garnered by a foreign city.

It remains only to be remarked that this 136 miles of road

from Louisville to Henderson, added to the 365 miles hereinbefore reported, makes a grand total of 501 miles of new railroad now under contract and in process of construction within the borders of Kentucky.

This, we are informed, equals, if it does not exceed, the mileage under construction of any other State in the Union; and will, within a few years, add from $8,000,000 to $10,000,000 in value to the taxable property of the State.

Governmental Control.

The past year has been truly an eventful one to the railroad interests of the country. It has been characterized by an almost phenomenal activity in the construction of roads, by efforts at absorption and consolidation of such gigantic proportions as almost to stagger the imagination, and by an earnest and intelligent effort, by practical tests and scientific experiments, to devise greater safeguards and security to human life, especially in the direction of avoiding those disastrous fires which so often attend railroad wrecks.

But the peculiar and distinguishing mark of its history is the inauguration by the Federal Government of a measure looking to the supervision and control of what is generally known as Inter-state Commerce. The enactment of this law, fraught as it is with the gravest and most far-reaching consequences both to the public and the railroads, is the result of an irresistible popular demand. We do not charge that the action of Congress was hasty or ill-considered. On the contrary, the subject has received the attention of that body for nearly ten years past.

After considering and discussing the measure from session to session for years, the Senate by resolution, under date of March 17, 1885, appointed a committee of its own members, presided over by Senator Cullom, of Illinois, to investigate and report upon the subject of the regulation of the transportation of freights and passengers between the several States, with power to sit during the recess of Congress, and with plenary powers to do everything necessary for a full examination of the subject.

In pursuance of this resolution and in the exercise of the powers thereby conferred, the committee visited some of the leading commercial centers of the United States and heard complaints "against the corporations engaged in transportation between the several States, and the opinions of the people as to what remedies could be applied by Congress." In the language of their report, "public notice was given of these hearings, and efforts were made by correspondence and otherwise to secure the attendance of those most competent to speak, as the representatives of every interest and of every shade of opinion. * * * * * * At the same time an extensive correspondence, reaching into all parts of the United States, was carried on, and written statements were solicited from localities which the committee found itself unable to visit, as well as from persons who could not appear at the public hearings."

"In the course of this correspondence letters and circulars were sent to the Railroad Commissioners of the several States, to the boards of trade, chambers of commerce, and the numerous other commercial and business exchanges and associations of every character throughout the country; to the President of each State Board of Agriculture or State Agricultural Society; to the Master of each State Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry in the United States; to the Secretary of the Farmers' Alliance in each State and Territory where organized; to railroad managers, and generally to gentlemen who were known to have given special attention to the transportation question in any of its phases.

"Especial efforts were made to reach those whose opinions were most valuable as the representatives of the producing interests, or by reason of their study of the subject or practical experience.

"The testimony taken and statements received by the committee in response to this correspondence were reported to the Senate, and doubtless 'embody' the best thought of the American people upon the questions involved in the regulation of commerce between the States. These statements are a very valuable contribution to the literature of this subject, and give the strongest evidence of its position in the public mind as one

of the most important and controlling questions now before the country.

"The interest everywhere manifested in its investigation has convinced the committee that no general question of governmental policy occupies at this time so prominent a place in the thoughts of the people as that of controlling the steady growth and extending influence of corporate power, and of regulating its relations to the public; and as there are none whose operations so directly affect every citizen in the daily pursuit of his business or avocation, as the corporations engaged in transportation, they naturally receive the most consideration in this connection.

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"That the industrial and commercial welfare of the country may be materially affected by the wisdom or unwisdom of the policy which may be pursued by the governmental authority in the determination and enforcement of the respective rights and obligations of the citizen and the railroad, will 'clearly appear from a consideration of the extent and far-reaching influence of the railroad system of the United States, and the commanding proportions attained by the internal commerce dependent upon that system for its existence.""

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The report of the Senate or Cullom Committee, from which the foregoing extracts are taken, is an elaborate, able and exhaustive presentation of its view of the whole subject of governmental regulation in all its aspects and phases. The report was accompanied by a bill embodying the conclusions of the committee. The House of Representatives at the same session passed what is known as the Reagan bill. The two Houses failing to agree upon either bill, a conference was had resulting in a measure moulded as it were out of both the others, which in due time became a law. This act will be found in the appendix to this report. It provides for a national commission of five members. These have been appointed by the President, and have entered upon the discharge of their duties.

This measure is to a great extent an experiment. Like all new laws it has first to be construed, and then subjected to the severer test of practical operation. That it will be found perfect, its most ardent and sanguine advocates do not presume to